Hi Everyone,

Hope all’s well.

Just saw there that the great Irish Music Journalist GEORGE BYRNE has passed away…RIP.

The biggest release this week is ALABAMA SHAKES second record “sound and colour” coming out on Rough Trade Records via PIAS on the 17th of April.

I quite enjoyed their first album, big things hoped for from this record….so I hope it lives up to the billing it’s getting.

Out the day before RSD and Rough Trade in fairness to them getting into the spirit of the weekend….next year RSW….RECORD SHOP WEEK…..only kidding…for now.

Anyway, Rough Trade releasing the Double LP on clear Vinyl just for independent retailers at 25 euro retail, which is ok to be fair for a double limited edition….my fearless faceless foes in cyber space, are 23 sterling or about 32 euro for the Vinyl….1 nil to the indie retailers.

A little taste from the new album below….

PIAS also has a live album by the musical genius ( it runs in his family) who is MARK EVERETT aka EELS…..2CD/DVD or 3LP/DVD…(30 euro with us, 40 euro with me pals…..2 nil to the indie retailers)…..recorded last year, I think ,in London’s Royal Albert Hall……the LPs are purple too btw if you like your records with a pinch of colour.

And this dude has certainly had a colourful life, tainted with huge sadness…..

How does one young man survive the deaths of his entire family and manage to make something worthwhile of his life? In Things The Grandchildren Should Know Mark Oliver Everett tells the story of what it’s like to grow up the insecure son of a genius in a wacky Virginia Ice Storm-like family. Left to run wild with his sister, his father off in some parallel universe of his own invention, Everett’s upbringing was ‘ridiculous, sometimes tragic and always unsteady.’

PIAS also have a MODEST MOUSE compilation album “build nothing out of something” and an interesting one by SQUAREPUSHER which certainly pushes the bounds of computer generated music experimentation….not my own personal bag.

Speaking of personal bags, obviously writing this is based a lot on my personal bag, and it is a bit of a one way street, pushing stuff at ye folks so please feel free to interact with us on our forum……is ED SHEERAN on LSD??

Please watch

http://www.today.com/popculture/ed-sheeran-visits-sesame-street-perform-adorable-song-2D80584196

Some might say this is catchier than most of his tunes….himself and Noel are great pals again by all accounts…..

UNIVERSAL has a new release by 16 year old singer/ songwriter SHAWN MENDES…..this kid is getting a world wide release date of Monday the 13th April……the industry only does this with albums they accept to sell by the bucket load…..the youngfella has over 40 million you tube hits across a few songs….so if he plays and writes his own songs then more power to him even if it is aimed at a certain market…..i really hope he does play and write and that he aint just a package….am I very cynical?

Strange day at work today…the staff of Dunnes Stores were on strike outside the entrances to the shopping centre and from what I can gather have a real grievance, so I hope they can get it resolved in their favour as I for one support them.

I have never been on either side of a union in my life long charmed occupation, probably fair enough to say that I have not worked in the real world!

Its all champagne and caviar in my game you see…

I must say it is the first time I have encountered a picket and I must admit when I landed at work this morning I found it quite intimidating (not that the people were in anyway intimidating, just the experience of it, if that makes sense)

There must have been 40 good people from Dunnes surrounding the main entrance with their placards…I must admit I felt either rightly or wrongly there were stares/glares at my little red fiesta as I went to my own job…( now when 40 people are standing around like that I suppose any car is a distraction and it will attract eyes…well that’s what I hoped happened anyway) ….but surely picket the shop the grievance is with and not the shopping centre I asked myself?

So I enquired when I went in to work….why outside….with it being outside, are we not all then falling on our swords for a battle we have really nothing to do with.

It suited the bigger party for the pickets to be outside as then there was no pressure at their front doors., and they probably had ROBERT SMITH playing in the background as well I would imagine….if you get me.

If the picket was just at the entrance to DUNNES STORES and not the shopping centre then Dunnes would have been way worse off as I believe very few would have went past at that point of entry and the other 50 odd shops would have been better off because people would not have had to pass a picket outside the centre to get their haircut, a key cut or buy a record.

Now, don’t get me wrong here….i wrote off the day very early on as one of those days…….power cut days….other strange events days…..we ended up doing 50% of what we done last holy Thursday…so be it, not the end of the world by any stretch of the imagination.

It was a landlords decision (landlord in the third person cos I don’t know who that is…..a few guys with loads of money and retail space from America I think) to make the employees picket outside the centre because inside is private property!!, but you have to wonder how much pressure was applied by the anchor tenant for that to happen?

Anyway back to the tunes….actually 22 hours later in my case….too old for those late nights.

UNIVERSAL also have a new album by Australian band THE PREATURES and it sounds alright to

UNIVERSAL have the Vinyl release of the QUEEN “forever” album on 4 LPs for only 110 euro….a few bells and whistles with it also….my friends in the sky, yeah that crowd who sell nappies also, are only 134 euro….3 nil to the indie retailers….and 3 nil to the cork city also tonight…..stand up for the cork city….stand up for the cork city….

Lastly from UNI for the 10th of April or next Friday now is the classic HERBIE HANCOCK record “maiden voyage” on Bluenote for its 50th anniversary on green vinyl.

Warner has new albums of note, in my opinion, from BETH HART, HALESTORM and the WOMBATS out next Friday also….nice variation.

They have reissues of TORI AMOS’s first two records “little earthquakes” and “under the pink” on deluxe 2 CD and LP formats.

Lastly WARNER has a live version of STATUS QUO “AQUOSTIC” from the roundhouse….aquostic was very well received last year.

Sony have new album by CITIZENS, a PAUL SIMON ultimate collection spanning his whole career on CD and LP formats….24 for the LP…I wont bore with pricing comparisons…ye get my drift.

Sony also has a blast of ANATHEMA LP reissues also out next Friday.

PROPER have a new DUKE SPECIAL album on CD and LP.

CARGO has a new album from guitar gods AND SO I WATCH YOU FROM AFAR (Irish also)

Republic of Music has a new album by THE BRAIDS.

MUSIC ON VINYL has reissues by JEFFERSON AIRPLANE and WILLY DEVILLE.

Nearly finished the Steve Jobs book, Christ he was wired different to most……not necessarily a bad thing…..they caught his cancer really early and even though it was in his pancreas felt they had a really good chance of getting rid of it, but they had to cut it out pronto…..nah nah Stevie says I will cure it myself by eating carrots and lettuce and leafs for 9 months, the world and his wife told him to get it cut out ( and he knew some heads) but he continued eating grass until it spread to his liver and 9 months later had it cut out….seemed his whole life was one rule for Steve, a different set of rules for everyone else.

That said, they will be talking and learning about him for a long long time to come.

Just two weeks to go to RECORD SHOP DAY and we a have a few local acts lined up to perform in the shop on the day, so will know more next week.

Have your tuppence worth on the forum…we would be delighted……we all have different tastes and opinions.

https://musiczone.ie/content/8-mz-forum

Check us out here and also if its awkward to get to the shop, drop me a mail if you are interested in something and we can keep it for you….no bothers…..free shipping on 3 records or CDs…no bother keeping stuff…

Anyway…sin e for this week

Thanks for listening,

Slan and hope ye had a nice Easter.

Ray.